A man uses a snowblower Jan. 28 in Green Bay. The city got hit with almost 10 inches of snow that day. The frequent snowfalls in January and February have led to a high number of citations issued to residents for not shoveling their sidewalks.(Photo: Adam Wesley/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

GREEN BAY - Remember when it kept snowing, and we thought our city would turn into a sarcophagus of snow and ice?

It turns out all that snowfall led to more complaints about unshoveled sidewalks.

Within a nearly five-week span, the city of Green Bay issued 103 invoices to property owners who didn't adequately clear their sidewalks, according to records obtained by the Press-Gazette. The city sent out 164 in all of 2018, some of which seemed to coincide with last year's April blizzard.

That number also surpasses the 74 invoices issued in January and February 2018.

This year's invoices came amid snowfall that inundated the area in January and February, dropping 22.7 and 28.4 inches per month, respectively. Green Bay also set two daily snowfall records during this time: 9.7 inches on Jan. 28 and 8.8 inches on Feb. 12. In February, Green Bay had eight days when it received more than an inch of snow, which is twice as many day as we normally have.

Though he didn't have data to confirm it, Public Works Director Steve Grenier said "storm after storm" seemed to lead to an uptick in complaints earlier this year.

"We never really got a chance to recover," he said.

In emails to the city, complainants described falling while running and children slipping, and expressed concerns for elderly residents who had to navigate snowy pathways.

Not every complaint turns into an invoice, though. Officials conduct an on-site investigation, Grenier said, and in many cases the sidewalks have been shoveled by the time they arrive. But 24 hours after the snow ends, the city can clear it if owners still haven't.

Then, they get an invoice. Public Works charges a base fee of $55 per parcel, plus 36 cents per linear foot of sidewalk. The rate increased this year from 15 cents per square foot in 2018 to help the department cover costs for a service it shouldn't need to provide, Grenier said.

"That’s a service above and beyond, so we want to make sure we’re recovering as much of that cost as we can," he said.

Slippery sidewalks weren't the only headaches caused by snow. Some residents complained to the city about plowed snow blocking their driveways, and in one case, a plow that broke a mailbox, according to city emails.

One resident was even trapped in his car after a plow pushed snow by his vehicle, records show. He parked on the street because his driveway was blocked.

The city will replace standard wooden mailboxes damaged by plows or pay homeowners up to $75 if they don't have a standard one, Grenier said. And if plows fill in a sidewalk that was previously cleared, the department will investigate and remove the snow at no cost.

Grenier said It's important for property owners to keep their sidewalks clear to ensure people can navigate the area, particularly those with disabilities. The issue came to the forefront, he said, after John Kennedy was hit and killed by a car in 2011 while traveling in his wheelchair in the road. The sidewalk hadn't been cleared.

"We do not want them in the street, and we have to think about all sidewalk users, including those who have mobility limitations," he said.

Contact Haley BeMiller at (920) 431-8212 or hbemiller@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @haleybemiller.